City turns down Taste bidder

(Crain's) — The city of Chicago has rejected a plan from a private group that wanted to charge festival-goers at Taste of Chicago.

Celebrate Chicago LLC was the only firm to respond to the city's request for bids to run Taste and several of the city's other summer festivals.

But the group — made up of the Illinois Restaurant Assn., Jam Productions and AEG Live — wanted to turn the Taste of Chicago, a free festival of food and music, into an event that charged $20 at the gate and up to $65 to attend a concert.

The mayor was not sold.

“The Taste of Chicago will always be free,” Mr. Daley said earlier this month.

The Daley administration made the rejection announcement late Tuesday, according to reports.

The city will continue to run Taste and six other festivals, despite loses totaling $7 million in the last three years, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.